Alyson Stoner Quotes

What most people know about me, they know through my music. This time, I've tried to open that door as wide as possible. These songs are a giant step closer to who I really am and what my music is all about. Hence the title.

The way I write my songs is that I have to believe what I'm writing about, and that's why they always end up being so personal - because the kind of artists I like, they convince me, they totally win me over straight away in that thing. Like, 'Oh my God, this song is totally about me.'

I have the great privilege of being both witness and storyteller. Intimacy, trust and intuition guide my work.

People used to say nobody can sing my songs but me - they're too personal.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

You know creators, composers, need a palette for life, a color for life.

Sometimes, particularly in summers in New York, I have tried to write in shorts or with no shirt on and found myself unable to do so, the reason being, I take it, that writing, even of the most impersonal sort, is for me a divestment, a striptease, even, so that if I start off undressed, I have nowhere to go.

With music, you're really showing someone a piece of your soul. You're saying, 'This is mine. I wrote this, I made this, I'm performing this. This is how I'm presenting it to you.' There's something really scary about that, but there's also something next-worldly about it, too.

I'm not afraid to use my personal experiences and put them into a song. I think that's when you get the best stuff anyway, when it's real emotion.

My work is intensely personal.

Whether I'm acting, writing, or directing, I want to tell the truth about human beings, especially my folk.

I suppose I'm always trying to break down the wall between my characters and myself. I'm trying to make the film as expressive and personal as I can, even if I can't explain, for example, how important it is for me to be Jewish.

You know, I've sung a lot of emotional songs in my life, but when you're writing it yourself, it's very difficult to decide what to reveal.

We've never been satisfied with just making 'me' music. What we're doing is trying to go to a place of some reverence.

I really do pride myself on being able to help other people tell their stories and bring out the best in them. But I still, every song I'm writing, I still need to relate to it. I still need to find my true self in it, or else it'll feel dishonest. I mean, everything has a queer meaning as far as I'm concerned.

Most of the time, when you are in the studio, you are revealing yourself; you're a bit naked. You can express your weaknesses, your awkward way of approaching sound. Sharing these intimate moments is like inviting somebody into your private room.

Here's the thing: we don't write music for a universal statement; we just share our experiences. And that's all it is. It's always raw and very authentic.

We're all inspired by what has come before us, but hope to use the inspiration to create our own. That's the artist's journey. It's a pretty amazing path.

I'm going to put every aspect of myself out into the world and try to convey it through photography.

The reason for my painting large canvases is that I want to be intimate and human.

An artist must find his expression closely linked to his individual experience or else follow in the old grooves resulting in lifeless forms.

In a portrait, you always leave part of yourself behind.

I go through the arc of a relationship with every single painting that I do.

A lyric has to mean something to me, something that has happened to me.

Sometimes when you're writing a song and that song comes into your head, it definitely comes from somewhere, like a real experience.